Bahrain police fire at protesters

Opposition group suspends parliamentary participation after another person is killed in firing at funeral procession.

Al-Jazeera

"At least one person has been killed and several others injured after riot police in Bahrain opened fire at protesters holding a funeral service for a man killed during protests in the kingdom a day earlier.

Fadhel Ali Almatrook was hit with bird-shotgun in the capital, Manama, on Tuesday morning, Maryam Alkhawaja, head of foreign relations at the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera.

"This morning the protesters were walking from the hospital to the cemetery and they got attacked by the riot police," Alkhawaja said.

"Thousands of people are marching in the streets, demanding the removal of the regime - police fired tear gas and bird shot, using excessive force - that is why people got hurt."

At least 25 people were reported to have been treated for injuries in hospital.

An Al Jazeera correspondent in Bahrain, who cannot be named for his own safety, said that police were taking a very heavy handed approach towards the protesters.

"Police fired on the protesters this morning, but they showed very strong resistance," our correspondent said....

Online reaction

Amira Al Hussaini, a Bahraini blogger that monitors citizen media for Global Voices Online, told Al Jazeera that there has been a huge outpouring of anger online in Bahrain.

"What we've seen yesterday and today, is a break from the normal routine - people like me, that are not necessarily in favour of the protests that are happening in Bahrain at this time, are now speaking out," she said.

"I am trying to remain objective but I can't - people are being shot at close range.".....

"This is being pitted as a sectarian issue - the Shia wanting to overthrow the regime. But it is not a Shia uprising."

She said that people from all backgrounds and religions are behind the protests."

قمع مسيرة سلمية في البحرين - الديه يوم الغضب 14 فبراير 2011

Video from YouTube showing riot police firing on largely peaceful protesters during Monday's demonstration

Mohamed Heikal: 'I was sure my country would explode. But the young are wiser than us'

Robert Fisk meets the doyen of Egypt's journalists

"The old man's voice is scathing, his mind like a razor, that of a veteran fighter, writer, sage, perhaps the most important living witness and historian of modern Egypt, turning on the sins of the regime that tried to shut him up forever. "Mubarak betrayed the republican spirit – and then he wanted to continue through his son Gamal," he says, finger pointed to heaven. "It was a project, not an idea; it was a plan. The last 10 years of the life of this country were wasted because of this question, because of the search for inheritance – as if Egypt was Syria, or Papa Doc and Baby Doc in Haiti.".....

Mubarak, he believes, was terrified that government files would be released if he resigned, that the regime's secrets would come tumbling out. "What I'm afraid of is that the dishonesty of some of the politicians in Egypt will tarnish such a valuable event," Heikal says. "They will use the issue of accountability to settle accounts. I want this country to have a proper investigation, not throw these files away for people to use for their own agenda. It is opportunism by politicians that I am afraid of. All the [regime's] files should be opened. An account should be given to our people for the last 30 years – but it should not be a matter for revenge. If small politicians use this, it will affect the value of what must be done."

Historically, Heikal regards the events of the past three weeks as overwhelming, unstoppable, unprecedented.

"In revolutions, there is no pattern. People want a change from a present to a future. Every revolution is conditioned by where it starts and where it is moving. But this event showed a huge Egyptian mass of people that it is possible to defy the terror of the state. I think this will revolutionise the Arab world."....

"Now we have semi-politicians who want to take advantage of this revolution. Some contenders are already promoting themselves. But the system has to be changed. The people made known what they want. They want something different. All the most modern technology in the world was used in this uprising. The people want something different."......"

Bahraini Police Kills One Person Attending Funeral of Monday’s Killing

Al-Manar

"Riot police in Bahrain have shot dead at least one person and wounded several other protesters holding a funeral service for a man killed during protests in the kingdom a day earlier.

Fadhel Ali Almatrook was hit with bird-shotgun in the capital, Manama, on Tuesday morning.

Thousands of people are marching in the streets, demanding the removal of the regime - police fired tear gas and bird shot, using excessive force – injuring people.

The killing comes a day after thousands came out to streets in a 'Day of Rage' to protest the regime.

A 22-year-old protester was killed on Monday of bullet wounds in his back in the village of Daih, a suburb of Manama and three others were in critical condition in hospital. Bahrain's news agency said that the country's interior minister had ordered an investigation into Monday's death after riot police clashed with protesters.

The news of the protester's death prompted activists to call for a vast participation at his funeral and to urge Bahrainis to escalate the pro-democracy protests.

Activists, inspired by revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, dubbed Monday "the Day of Rage" to express disappointment at the political reforms of the past decade, which have failed to bring prosperity and real change.

Since late Sunday, Bahrain's security forces have been patrolling shopping centers and other locations to monitor people's movements amid calls by opposition groups for pro-democracy protests."

مراجعات على خطاب ما بعد الثورة

بعض الأفكار المتداولة فى الساحة المصرية بعد الثورة تحتاج إلى مراجعة وتصويب، لأننى أخشى أن يدفعنا الحماس إلى الوقوع في الغلط. وفي اللحظات الراهنة فإن الغلط مشكلة، وما ينبني عليه مشكلة أكبر.

"....
ما كان فيسبوك مفجر الثورة ولا كان الشباب وحده رجالها ووقودها، وإنما هى ثورة الشعب المصري بكل فئاته العمرية وبكل أطيافه
....
هل يمكن أن يصبح الجيش ضامنا للشرعية والحقوق فى بلد كإنجلترا مثلا؟ ولماذا يكون الشعب هو الضامن والحارس في إنجلترا فى حين أن الجيش هو الذي يقوم بذلك الدور في مصر؟
....
هل يصبح الجيش وصيا على المجتمع كما هو الحال في الجزائر وكما كان في تركيا الكمالية، أم يكون إحدى مؤسسات المجتمع التي تؤدي واجبها في تأمينه وليس الوصاية عليه؟
.....
إن تعديل الدستور، فى ظل استمرار الطوارئ وتكبيل مؤسسات المجتمع بالقوانين المقيدة للحريات لن يحدث تقدما يذكر في البناء الديمقراطي، في حين أن إطلاق الحريات من شأنه أن يسمح بظهور خيارات وبدائل عدة أمام الناس، تكون أصدق تعبيرا عنهم
.....
كان لا بد للنظام أن يزول بعد أن ضيع المكانة وخرّب المكان، ومن ثم ارتكب بحق مصر جريمة تاريخية مضاعفة ينبغى ألا تنسى وألا تتكرر
...."

20th Anniversay of the Ammerya Massacre in Baghdad

Twenty years ago, as Americans were celebrating Valentine’s Day, Iraqi husbands and fathers in the Amiriyah section of Baghdad were peeling the remains of their wives and children off the walls and floor of a large neighborhood bomb shelter.

The men had left the shelter the evening before, so their wives would have some measure of privacy as they sought refuge from the U.S.-led coalition bombing campaign, which was at its most intense pre-ground war stage.

All of the more than 400 women and children were incinerated or boiled to death at 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 13, 1991, when two F-117 stealth fighter-bombers each dropped a 2,000-pound laser-guided “smart bomb” on the civilian shelter at Amiriyah.

It was one of those highly accurate “surgical strikes.” The first bomb sliced through 10 feet of reinforced concrete before a time-delayed fuse exploded, destroying propane and water tanks for heating water and food. Minutes later the second bomb flew precisely through the opening that had been cut by the first and exploded deeper in the shelter creating an inferno.

Fire rose from the lower level to the area where the women and children were seeking shelter – and so did the boiling water. Those who did not burn to death immediately or die from the bombs’ impact were boiled or steamed to death in the intense heat.

The bombs hit toward the end of the month-long bombing campaign to “soften up” Iraq before the U.S.-led ground invasion to drive Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

The aerial bombing had begun on Jan. 17, 1991; the coalition flew over 100,000 sorties, dropping 88,500 tons of bombs. U.S. government documents show that the bombs were targeted on civilian as well as military infrastructure. They were very accurate.

Egypt protests continue in the factories

Egypt's striking workers won't entrust the transition to democracy to the generals who were the backbone of the dictatorship

AN EXCELLENT COMMENT

Hossam el-Hamalawy

(Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist from Cairo. He blogs at arabawy.org)
guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 February 2011

"Since Hosni Mubarak fled from Cairo, and even before then, some middle-class activists have been urging Egyptians, in the name of patriotism, to suspend their protests and return to work, singing some of the most ridiculous lullabies: "Let's build a new Egypt", "Let's work harder than ever before". They clearly do not know that Egyptians are already among the hardest working people in the world.

Those activists want us to trust Mubarak's generals with the transition to democracy – the same junta that provided the backbone of his dictatorship over the past 30 years. And while I believe the supreme council of the armed forces, which received $1.3bn from the US in 2010, will eventually engineer the transition to a "civilian" government, I have no doubt it will be a government that guarantees the continuation of a system that never touches the army's privileges, that keeps the armed forces as the institution that has the final say in politics, that guarantees Egypt continues to follow the much hated US foreign policy.

A civilian government should not be made up of cabinet members who have simply removed their military uniforms. A civilian government means one that fully represents the Egyptian people's demands and desires without any intervention from the top brass. I think it will be very hard to accomplish this, if the junta allows it at all. The military has been the ruling institution in this country since 1952. Its leaders are part of the establishment. And while the young officers and soldiers are our allies, we cannot for one second lend our trust and confidence to the generals.

All classes in Egypt took part in the uprising. Mubarak managed to alienate all social classes in society. In Tahrir Square, you found sons and daughters of the Egyptian elite, together with the workers, middle-class citizens and the urban poor. But remember that it's only when the mass strikes started on Wednesday that the regime started crumbling and the army had to force Mubarak to resign because the system was about to collapse.

Some have been surprised to see workers striking. This is naive. The workers have been staging the longest and most sustained strike wave in Egypt's history since 1946, one that began in the textiles city of Mahalla. It's not the workers' fault if the world hasn't been paying attention. Every single day over the past three years there has been a strike in some factory in Egypt, whether it's in Cairo or the provinces. These strikes were both economic and political in nature.

From the first day of the January 25 uprising, the working class has been taking part in the protests. However, the workers were at first taking part as "demonstrators" and not necessarily as "workers" – meaning, they were not moving independently. The government had brought the economy to halt, not the protesters, with their curfews, and by shutting down the banks and businesses. It was a capitalist strike, aimed at terrorising the Egyptian people. Only when the government tried to bring the country back to "normal" on 8 February did the workers return to their factories, discuss the current situation and start to organise en masse, moving as an independent block....

These workers are not going home any time soon. They started striking because they couldn't feed their families any more. They have been emboldened by Mubarak's overthrowal, and cannot go back to their children and tell them that the army has promised to bring them food and their rights in I don't know how many months. Many of the strikers have already started raising additional demands, including the right to establish free trade unions away from the corrupt, state-backed Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions.

On Saturday I started receiving news that thousands of public transport workers were staging protests in el-Gabal el-Ahmar. The temporary workers at Helwan Steel Mills are also protesting. The railway technicians continue to bring trains to a halt. Thousands of workers at the el-Hawamdiya sugar factory are protesting and oil workers announced a strike on Sunday over work conditions. Nearly every single sector in the Egyptian economy has witnessed either strikes or mass protests. Even sections of the police have joined in.

At this point, the Tahrir Square occupation is to be suspended. We have to take Tahrir to the factories now. As the revolution proceeds, an inevitable class polarisation will take place. We have to be vigilant. We hold the keys to the liberation of the entire region, not just Egypt. Onwards we must go, with a permanent revolution that will empower the people of this country with direct democracy from below."

“This Is A Dream Come True”: Egyptians Celebrate in Cairo After Mubarak Resigns

"Democracy Now! correspondent Anjali Kamat was in the streets of Cairo as Egyptians erupted with joy after learning President Hosni Mubarak had stepped own following 18 days of street protests that began Jan. 25. In this video report, Kamat takes us to Cairo’s Tahrir Square where people are not only cleaning up the streets and but are also maintaining their rights to public political expression and involvement in Egypt’s uncertain future...."

After the Revolution: Mubarak is Gone After 30 Years in Power, But Questions Remain as to How Transition Will Proceed

"While the Egyptian military has agreed some of the protesters demands, the military has refused to lift the emergency law or to release the thousands of political prisoners jailed by the Mubarak regime. Democracy Now! Senior Producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Issandr El Amrani, blogger at Arabist.net, join us from Cairo. Barnard College Political Science Professor Mona El-Ghobashy joins us in our studio....."

“There is a Pre-History to this Revolt”: As Egypt’s Military Bans Labor Strikes,........

“There is a Pre-History to this Revolt”: As Egypt’s Military Bans Labor Strikes, Mona El-Ghobashy Examines How Egyptian Labor and Social Movements Laid the Roots For the Revolution



"Just days after the Egyptian labor movement joined the popular uprising that ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the ruling military council has called on labor leaders to halt strikes and protests. “Egyptian politics didn’t begin Jan. 25,” says Barnard College Professor Mona El-Ghobashy, who has written extensively on politics and social movements in the Middle East and North Africa, “There is a pre-history to this revolt. For us to understand the significance of what is happening today, we have to link it to the fabric of the Egyptian politics starting in 2000.”...."

Al-Jazeera Video: LIVE UPDATE: EGYPT

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - Owning Egypt's revolution

Real News Video: Military dissolve Egyptian parliament

ITN News: Egypt's military rulers have dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution.

Under the (Egyptian) volcano

A VERY GOOD PIECE

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"The party - and what a party - is over. Now it's hangover time - and what a hangover. Meet the new boss, or the Pharaoh rebuilt as Shiva; the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. If this was Southeast Asia, people would say "same same - but different".

Instead of a police state, it's communique time (talk about a throwback to the 1970s). President and vice president dissolved. Parliament dissolved (but with Pharaoh-appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq insisting the current kangaroo cabinet will be in place for that "orderly transition".) Constitution suspended.

The army trying to impose the notion it will run Egypt for the next six months. Vaguely sinister expected curbs on strikes and "chaos and disorder".

What can a Democrat, Nobel Peace Prize President of the United States do, except to support a military coup? (Yet another throwback to the 1960s and 1970s). Recap: the White House and the State Department wanted Hosni Mubarak gone. But Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) badly wanted him to stay. While Mubarak - like a trashy dyed-hair version of Louis XVI - fought for his own survival, Vice President Omar "Sheikh al-Torture" Suleiman, endorsed by Washington and Brussels, fought for the survival of the regime (as in "orderly transition"), and Washington fought for the survival of one of the crucial pillars of "stability" in the Middle East. The street was fighting for their lives. .......

Way beyond the inevitable clash in Egypt of demographic explosion and economic crisis, what is literally freaking out the West is that its elites know what the vast majority of Egyptians don't want. A truly democratic, sovereign Egyptian government cannot possibly remain a slave of US foreign policy.

Things may start at a minimum with lifting the siege of Gaza and re-examining the export of natural gas to Israel at subsidized rates; then they will move to reconsidering the safe passage of the US Navy in the Suez Canal and finally rediscuss the holy of holies - the 1979 Camp David accords with Israel.

From now on, any increasing degree of freedom enjoyed by Egypt will be directly proportional to the increasing degree of fear felt by Washington, Tel Aviv and Riyadh. It's fair to say that at this stage the Egyptian street keeps close to its heart those that supported it - from al-Jazeera and assorted Arab nationalists to Hezbollah in Lebanon. And knows very well those that despised it - from the House of Saud and assorted Wahhabi extremists to Israel. No one will forget that Saudi King Abdullah accused the street of "meddling in the security and stability of Arab and Muslim Egypt".

The key slogan of the revolution has been "The people want the downfall of the regime". It has already generated a spin-off; "The people want the liberation of Palestine". Stay glued to the weather reports; the real volcano has not even erupted. "

Egypt's revolution and Israel: "Bad for the Jews"

Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada, 14 February 2011

"The view from Israel is that if they indeed succeed, the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions are bad, very bad. Educated Arabs -- not all of them dressed as "Islamists," quite a few of them speaking perfect English whose wish for democracy is articulated without resorting to "anti-Western" rhetoric -- are bad for Israel.

Arab armies that do not shoot at these demonstrators are as bad as are many other images that moved and enthused so many people around the world, even in the West. This world reaction is also bad, very bad. It makes the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and its apartheid policies inside the state look like the acts of a typical "Arab" regime.....

But who knows, maybe the American taxpayer would not budge this time. And maybe the European politicians would follow the general sentiment of their public and allow not only Egypt to be dramatically transformed, but also welcome a similar change in Israel and Palestine. In such a scenario the Jews of Israel have a chance to become part of the real Middle East and not an alien and aggressive member of a Middle East which was the figment of the hallucinatory Zionist imagination."

Arab women lead the charge for political change

Emad Mekay, The Electronic Intifada, 14 February 2011

"CAIRO (IPS) - Asmaa Mahfouz, a 26-year-old Egyptian woman who two weeks ago had only one name, now boasts at least three. These include "A woman worth 100 men," "The girl who crushed Mubarak" and "The leader of the Egyptian revolution."

Mahfouz, who began online political activism in 2008, is now credited for launching a video call that sparked the revolution against the autocratic military rule of US-backed President Hosni Mubarak...."

Egyptian activist Mona Seif: It's a revolution, and it's not over

Matthew Cassel, The Electronic Intifada, 14 February 2011

"11 February 2011 will forever be an historic day for Egypt. It was then that weeks of protests around the country finally forced Hosni Mubarak, the US-backed president of the country for the past 30 years, to leave office. The protests first began on 25 January when activists in Cairo took to the streets and first occupied central Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square.

On 12 February, The Electronic Intifada's Matthew Cassel spoke with 24-year-old blogger and activist Mona Seif (@monasosh on Twitter) about the revolution, how it began, and what it means for Egypt's future......"

Hypocrites “Congratulate” The Egyptians: Too Late, Just Ikhras

By Ikhras.com

"The reaction of the Washington Arabs to the popular revolution in Egypt has served as a reminder of their hypocrisy and opportunism. It’s well established that in order for the members of the self-styled “Arab Lobby” in Washington to continue functioning on the margins of the political establishment, and ensure the presence of a few US officials at their annual conventions or galas, they are required to adopt not only the official Washington discourse, but also the mindset and political culture as well. This inherently racist political culture views the Arab world with contempt. The Arab or Muslim is viewed as naive and unsophisticated. Those who hold this view are willing to say anything no matter how outrageous, hypocritical, or contradictory it may be without regard for how such statements may be received or any respect for the ability of Arabs to evaluate the credibility or sincerity of those making the statements....."

It’s Always About Israel

Even when it isn't…

by Justin Raimondo, February 14, 2011

"While most of the rest of the world, minus Glenn Beck, was celebrating the overthrow of one of the world’s most repressive dictatorships, over in Israel – which bills itself as the only real democracy in the region – they were sour-faced and ready to rumble. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told his cabinet to shut up about the Egyptian events, but they just couldn’t contain themselves as the specter of democracy in the Arab world moved closer to realization: We are watching these events, said Netanyahu, with “vigilance and worry.” The worry is rooted, he said, in the possibility that “in a situation of chaos, an organized Islamist body can seize control of a country. It happened in Iran. It happened in other instances.”

No sooner had these words escaped his mouth than Israel’s amen corner in this country and around the world echoed the “Egypt is Iran” meme until it had found its way into nearly every news report, and virtually every public statement by a major politician on the Egyptian events. No “analysis” of the situation was complete without a comparison to the Iranian revolution of 1979.....

The Israeli government, and its American lobby, would do well to pipe down about the alleged “dangers” posed by the Egyptians’ fight for freedom, lest they reveal more about themselves – and Israel – than they would care to admit...."

Is the army tightening its grip on Egypt?

By Robert Fisk

"Two days after millions of Egyptians won their revolution against the regime of Hosni Mubarak, the country's army – led by Mubarak's lifelong friend, General Mohamed el-Tantawi – further consolidated its power over Egypt yesterday, dissolving parliament and suspending the constitution. As they did so, the prime minister appointed by Mubarak, ex-General Ahmed Shafiq, told Egyptians that his first priorities were "peace and security" to prevent "chaos and disorder" – the very slogan uttered so often by the despised ex-president. Plus ça change?

In their desperation to honour the 'military council's' promise of Cairo-back-to-normal, hundreds of Egyptian troops – many unarmed – appeared in Tahrir Square to urge the remaining protesters to leave the encampment they had occupied for 20 days. At first the crowd greeted them as friends, offering them food and water. Military policemen in red berets, again without weapons, emerged to control traffic. But then a young officer began lashing demonstrators with a cane – old habits die hard in young men wearing uniforms – and for a moment there was a miniature replay of the fury visited upon the state security police here on 28 January.

It reflected a growing concern among those who overthrew Mubarak that the fruits of their victory may be gobbled up by an army largely composed of generals who achieved their power and privilege under Mubarak himself......

As for the freeing of political prisoners, the military has remained suspiciously silent. Is this because there are prisoners who know too much about the army's involvement in the previous regime? Or because escaped and newly liberated prisoners are returning to Cairo and Alexandria from desert camps with terrible stories of torture and executions by – so they say – military personnel. An Egyptian army officer known to 'The Independent' insisted yesterday that the desert prisons were run by military intelligence units who worked for the interior ministry – not for the ministry of defence.

As for the top echelons of the state security police who ordered their men – and their faithful 'baltagi' plain-clothes thugs -- to attack peaceful demonstrators during the first week of the revolution, they appear to have taken the usual flight to freedom in the Arab Gulf. According to an officer in the Cairo police criminal investigation department whom I spoke to yesterday, all the officers responsible for the violence which left well over 300 Egyptians dead have fled Egypt with their families for the emirate of Abu Dhabi....

Now, of course, it is Egypt's turn to watch the effects of its own revolution on its neighbours. Scarcely a family in Egypt was unaware yesterday of the third day of protests against the president in Yemen and the police violence which accompanied them. And it is remarkable that just as Arab protesters mimic their successful counterparts in Egypt, the state security apparatus of each Arab regime faithfully follows the failed tactics of Mubarak's thugs.

Another irony has dawned on Egyptians. Those Arab dictators which claim to represent their people – Algeria comes to mind, and Libya, and Morocco – have signally failed to represent their people by not congratulating Egypt on its successful democratic revolution. To do so, needless to say, would be to saw off the legs of their own thrones. "

WikiLeaks cables: Egyptian military head is 'old and resistant to change'

US ambassador to Cairo gives his opinion on Muhammad Tantawi and number two general, Sami Enan

Julian Borger
guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 February 2011

"Nothing Egypt's military council has done in its past suggests it has the capacity or inclination to introduce speedy and radical change. Guaranteed its $1.3bn (£812m) annual grant from the US — a dividend from the Camp David peace accord with Israel – it has gained the reputation as a hidebound institution with little appetite for reform.

The frustration of the military's American benefactors shines through in leaked US cables, where the criticism focuses mostly on the man at the top, 75-year-old Field Marshal Muhammad Tantawi.

In March 2008 cable [146040], the US ambassador to Cairo, Francis Ricciardone, described Tantawi as "aged and change-resistant".

"Charming and courtly, he is nonetheless mired in a post-Camp David military paradigm that has served his cohort's narrow interests for the last three decades. He and [Hosni] Mubarak are focused on regime stability and maintaining the status quo through the end of their time. They simply do not have the energy, inclination or world view to do anything differently," it reads.

The ambassador also notes that Tantawi has used his influence in the cabinet to oppose economic and political reforms which he sees as weakening central government power......

Despite Egypt's dependence on US military funding, Tantawi seems to have viewed as standoffish by US officials. They saw the number two general on the council, Sami Enan, as more amenable to personal ties. In fact, Enan was in Washington when the Cairo protests erupted.

That puts the 62-year-old Soviet-trained chief of staff, in the unusual position of being both Washington's and the Muslim Brotherhood's favourite general. The movement has described him as incorruptible and as one of its cleric put it: "He can be the future man of Egypt … I think he will be acceptable."....."

Back to the Future: Down With the Pharaoh! Long Live the Military Junta??

Egypt's military rejects swift transfer of power and suspends constitution

Ruling military council intends to retain power for six months or longer while elections are scheduled and will rule by decree

Chris McGreal in Cairo
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 February 2011

"The Egyptian military has rejected the demands of pro-democracy protesters for a swift transfer of power to a civilian administration, saying it intends to rule by martial law until elections are held.

The army's announcement, which included the suspending of the constitution, was a further rebuff to some pro-democracy activists after troops were sent to clear demonstrators from Cairo's Tahrir Square, the centre of the protests that brought down Hosni Mubarak. "We do not want any protesters to sit in the square after today," said the head of the military police, Mohamed Ibrahim Moustafa Ali. Many agreed to leave but a hardcore refused, saying they would remain until the army took a series of steps toward democratic reform including installing a civilian-led government and abolishing the repressive state of emergency......

The military regime has also retained Mubarak's cabinet, to the frustration of some protesters.


"There is no change in the form, method or process of work. Matters are completely stable," said the prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq. "Our main concern now as a cabinet is security. We need to bring back a sense of security to the Egyptian citizen."[The same words used by the Pharaoh! What has changed? Even Break-Their-Legs-Abul-Gheit is still the Foreign Minister! Is Tzipi Livni going to visit him soon in Cairo for another photo op and to lend him support? The Gaza siege is still on! This is the new Egypt? I hope not.]....

Algeria 'to lift emergency laws'

Foreign minister says 19-year-old emergency will end "within days" amid calls for more protests against government.

Al-Jazeera

"The Algerian government has said it will end its 19-year-old state of emergency "within days". Mourad Medelci, the foreign minister, made the announcement on Monday, echoing a similar promise made by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the president, earlier this month.

"In the coming days, we will talk about it as if it was a thing of the past," Medelci told French rmedia.

A state of emergency has been in place in Algeria since 1992 and the government has come under pressure to remove the laws following popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

The decision also comes after demonstrations across the country, calling for a change of government......

Weekly protests

Opposition groups have also announced they will follow up the protests held this weekend by calling a demonstration in Algiers, the capital, every Saturday.

"We will continue to march until the regime steps down. Each Saturday we will maintain the pressure," Mohsen Belabes, a spokesman for the RCD opposition party which helped organised the demonstrations, said.

Elias Filali, an Algerian blogger and activist, quoted Ali Yahia Abdennour, a senior figure and human right activist, as saying: "We should continue protesting every Saturday in the same square, we will gather momentum as we progress we want our dignity back.

"Yesterday the police has brutally beaten many protesters amongst them a pregnant women, old ladies, a journalist, young men and women, we should carry on protesting until we get our rights."....."

Mahmoud Zahar: Muslim Brotherhood More Moderate, Democratic than West

Al-Manar

COMMENT:

What a stupid and idiotic "leader!"

"Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar said the Muslim Brotherhood was, "the most moderate organization, the most democratic organization, even more than the Western people," in a radio interview with Aaron Klein on WABC Radio New York on Sunday....."

Ayman Nour Calls for Revision of Israel Peace Treaty

Al-Manar

"Opposition leader Ayman Nour said Sunday that "the role of the Camp David accord has ended" after the Egyptian army stressed it was committed to observing all of Egypt's international treaties.

In an interview with a Lebanese radio station, Nour, who served a lengthy jail sentence during deposed president Hosni Mubarak's era, said Egypt "is a great country and must respect its agreements. As for Camp David – this is a unique issue with unique aspects – the people will decide on this matter."For all intents and purposes, Camp David is over, because it is an old treaty and its terms must be improved in a way that will correspond with Egypt's interests," said Nour, who is considered one of the more liberal opposition figures and has no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

"The Egyptian rights must be improved, because these rights - as they appear in the Camp David accord – are very modest," he said. As of now Nour is the only political figure to challenge the army's position vis-à-vis international treaties. He has relatively little clout within the opposition."

Sources: Mubarak falls into coma in Sharm al-Sheikh

Al-Masry Al-Youm

"Ousted President Hosni Mubarak went into a coma on Saturday at his residence in Sharm al-Sheikh, according to well-informed sources.

Mubarak flew to the Red Sea resort town on Thursday with his immediate family following his final speech, in which he handed over executive authority to former Vice-President Omar Suleiman.

The same sources said that Mubarak was currently receiving medical treatment but that no decision had yet been made on whether to transfer the 83-year-old former head-of-state to hospital.

Rumors had circulated earlier that Mubarak had fainted twice while recording his final speech, which was broadcast on state television on Thursday evening.

Translated from the Arabic Edition."

Al-Jazeera Video: Protests in Yemen continue

Al-Jazeera Video: Gazans hope for free border

The Rabbit is Scared: الحكومة السورية تقدم للمرة الأولى معونات مادية للأسر الفقيرة

الحكومة السورية تقدم للمرة الأولى معونات مادية للأسر الفقيرة

"دمشق ـ بدأت الحكومة السورية الأحد توزيع الدفعة الأولى من المعونة المادية، للأسر الفقيرة، وهي الأولي من نوعها في سورية التي يقدمها الصندوق الوطني للمعونة الاجتماعية، الذي اقر بموجب مرسوم جمهوري في 14 من الشهر الماضي.
وتبلغ قيمة المعونة حوالي 12 مليار ليرة سورية حوالي (240 مليون دولار أميركي)، من المقرر ان يستفيد منها 415 ألف أسرة، بناء عل معطيات المسح الاحتماعي الذي جرى في العام 2009.

وقالت مصادر في وزارة الشؤون الاجتماعية انه "سيتم خلال العام الحالي صرف المرحلتين الثانية والثالثة وقد قسمت الأسر المستحقة للمعونة إلى أربع فئات حيث يبلغ عدد أسر الفئة الأولى 127 ألف أسرة تستحق 14 ألف ليرة سورية (300 دولار اميركي) في الدفعة الواحدة، والفئة الثانية عشرة آلاف ليرة (200 دولار) والفئة الثالثة أربعة آلاف ليرة تستحق الفئة الرابعة ألفي ليرة ويستمر صرف المعونة حتى 19 من أيار/مايو القادم".

واحتلت محافظة حلب الموقع الأول بين الأسر المستحقة للمساعدة صندوق المعونة الاجتماعية إذ بلغ عدد المستفيدين من الصندوق 85 ألف أسرة تليها الحسكة 81 ألف أسرة وذلك بحسب وزارة الشؤون الاجتماعية والعمل.

يذكر أن الصندوق الوطني للمعونة الاجتماعية أحدث بموجب المرسوم التشريعي رقم 9 للعام 2011 بهدف تقديم معونات دورية أو طارئة وفق أسس ومعايير معتمدة وتعزيز تنمية رأس المال البشري والاستثمار فيه وتمكين المستفيدين اقتصاديا واجتماعياً وصحياً وتعليمياً من خلال برامج ينفذها الصندوق.

وكان الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد أصدر في السادس عشر من الشهر الماضي مرسوماً تشريعيا يقضي بزيادة تعويض التدفئة على الرواتب وأجور العاملين بالدولة بمقدار 630 ليرة سورية، ما يعادل 13 دولار، في إطار تحسين الوضع المعيشي للمواطنين.

وفي السياق ذاته، أقر مجلس التعليم العالي في سوريا الشهر الماضي تخصيص ما يزيد على 600 مليون ليرة سورية، ما يعادل 12 مليون دولار لميزانية صندوق الهيئة العامة لصندوق التسليف الطلابي تصرف كمنح دراسية للطلبة وإعانات مالية، يستفيد منها الآلاف من الطلاب وتامين حواسيب لأكثر من عشرة الآف طالب بأقساط شهرية لمدة سنتين.
"

Tahrir Square protesters defy army to keep Egypt's revolution alive

Barak: "That's my man now! I say sit and he sits!"

Focus now on push for a civilian-led interim government and removal of emergency laws that permit detention without trial

Chris McGreal in Cairo and Julian Borger
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 February 2011

".....Shalkami was having none of it.

"The rest of the revolution is not complete. Since the beginning of the revolution we have trusted our army but if we leave the square our revolution will die. We must keep the revolution alive so that we get the 100% freedom we are asking for," he said.

Shalkami is among a few hundred protesters who have remained in Tahrir Square to keep pressure on the military to meet the demands of the demonstrators, which went beyond Mubarak's removal.

The army has promised free elections in a few months and said it will lift the hated state of emergency when the security situation allows [It sounds just like Omar Shlomo!]. It has also dismissed the widely discredited parliament elected last year in a tainted ballot.....

But just to remind the army, a victory celebration is planned for Tahrir Square on Friday at which organisers of the protests plan to announce a "council of trustees" to – as Ronald Reagan put it in negotiating nuclear missile treaties with the Soviets – trust but verify.

Nothing Egypt's military council has done in its past suggests it has the capacity or inclination to introduce speedy and radical change. Guaranteed its $1.3bn annual grant from the US – a dividend from the Camp David peace accord with Israel – it has gained a reputation as a hidebound institution with little appetite for reform.

The frustration of the military's US benefactors shines through in leaked embassy cables, in which the criticism is focused mostly on the man at the top, 75-year-old Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi. A March 2008 cable described Tantawi as "aged and change-resistant".

It said: "Charming and courtly, he is nonetheless mired in a post-Camp David military paradigm that has served his cohort's narrow interests for the last three decades. He and Mubarak are focused on regime stability and maintaining the status quo through the end of their time. They simply do not have the energy, inclination or world view to do anything differently.""

Al-Jazeera Video: Wealthy Egyptians fear change

Al Jazeera: While millions of Egyptians are welcoming in the post-Mubarak era, others, particularly the wealthy members of the society, have a lot to lose

Al-Jazeera Video: Egypts security forces demand more rights

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - 'The end of the road'

Egypt's New Military Rulers To Ban Unions, Strikes

Reuters

BREAKING

"CAIRO - Egypt's new military rulers will issue a warning on Sunday against anyone who creates "chaos and disorder", an army source said.

The Higher Military Council will also ban meetings by labor unions or professional syndicates, effectively forbidding strikes, and tell all Egyptians to get back to work after the unrest that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

The army will also say it acknowledges and protects the right of people to protest, the source said."

Real News Video with Transcript: The History of Military Dictatorship in Egypt

Gilbert Achcar: Military rule in Egypt began with Nasser's overthrow of King Farouk and increasing independence from the US

A VERY GOOD INTERVIEW
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND WATCHING IT

Communique Number Five: Mubarak Regime without Mubarak

AN IMPORTANT COMMENT
By Angry Arab

"It is official now. The US is governing Egypt today. Don't be fooled by the negotiations with the opposition and even with the Muslim Brotherhood. When colonial powers feel threatened in their interests, they can force the puppet to be inclusive. Remember the February 4th, 1942 which went famous in Egyptian history: when the British (with tanks) ordered Faruq to dismiss the cabinet and to bring the Wafd in government. Communique Number 5 is also noteworthy because the military junta seems to be getting more confident. What also struck me is that Randa Abu-Al-`Azm (the Cairo correspondent for Al-Arabiyyah TV--the news station of King Fahd's brother-in-law) seems to have the eyes and ears of the Ahmad Shafiq government. She was an unapologetic propagandist for the Mubarak regime to the last days, and even wanted to dismiss the protesters as armed goons (baltajiyyah). And I was astonished to hear that the "new"government offered the portfolio of Minister of Information to none other than `Imad Ad-Din Adib (a propagandist for Mubarak who helped launch the last presidential campaign of Mubarak in the news media through marathon soft-ball interviews). Adib is also close to the House of Saud. And the fact that Ahmad Abu Al-Ghayt remained despite leaked memos by him during the uprising in which he called on Egyptian diplomats to spy on Egyptian protesters overseas tells volume. The work has not been completed, and the military junta--as we have seen elsewhere in the region--can extend its life for years and decades at the insistence of the US/Saudi Arabia/Israel. I can't prove that each member of the junta has received a bag of Saudi dinars but I would have bet my potatoes on it. The regime will also be playing games through the divisions of the opposition. Mubarak is gone: long live Mubarak clones in military uniforms with the same outside (US/Israel/Saudi Arabia) sponsors.

PS Worst sign: Abu Al-`Azm of Al-Arabiyyah indicated that the role of `Umar Sulayman may be revived."

Cairo's 50,000 street children were abused by this regime

Cairo's street kids were duped into resisting the revolution, then shot by police in the chaos that ensued

By Robert Fisk

"......They are everywhere in the capital, the 50,000 street children of Cairo, Mubarak's shameful, unspoken legacy, the detritus of the poor and the defenceless, orphans and outcasts, glue-sniffers, many of them drug-addicted, as young as five, the girls often arrested and – according to the children and charity workers – sexually molested by the police.

Egyptian government statistics claim that only 5,000 beggar children live on the streets, a figure which local non-governmental organisations and Western agencies say is another Mubarak fantasy to cover up a scandal 10 times as big.

Children interviewed by The Independent on Sunday, however, have also revealed how Mubarak supporters deliberately brought children to the outskirts of Tahrir Square to throw stones at the pro-democracy supporters, how they persuaded penniless street kids to participate in their pro-Mubarak marches. Swarms of other children forced their way into the square itself because they discovered that the protesters were kind to them, feeding them sandwiches and giving them cigarettes and money.......

"They were told it was their duty – a national patriotic act – to throw stones at the demonstrators, to do violent actions," said an Egyptian doctor in Saida Zeinab. According to the same woman, many children were hit by police rubber bullets when they found themselves on the side of the pro-democracy demonstrators. At least 12 from this district alone were taken to hospital with wounds caused by police weapons.....

"It was just before Friday prayers and we heard the police were beating people in the street," he said. "I went out and saw lots of people throwing stones – so I started throwing stones at the police.

"Everyone was throwing stones, my family, every family, because everyone hated the police....

These children – often much younger than they claimed – sometimes avoided questions about police behaviour; they were obviously still afraid. Hostel workers spoke of policemen forcing female street children to sleep with them, even stealing money from the girls. Several children said that most of their friends were on drugs. One young man was clearly addicted and spoke almost incoherently of police violence, of carrying knives, of being repeatedly beaten in the Saida Zeinab police station by two cops, whose full names were given to The Independent on Sunday......"

Egypt: The key questions answered

(Click on cartoon by Schrank to enlarge)

After the momentous events that climaxed in the deposing of Egypt's oppressive dictator, our experts [Don't believe everything their "experts" say; not one of them saw this coming.] look at where the country goes from here

The Independent

"Why did the protesters prevail?

Many of the younger protesters in what has been become known as the 25 January revolution told stories of being stopped in the street by older Egyptians and told how proud they should feel. Clearly those with longer memories were impressed at the speed of Mubarak's fall from grace. One of the things which facilitated it was the internet. As one administrator of the Facebook page which first called for the protests said: "Before our webpage went up people were interested only in football. But afterwards everything changed."...."

Yesterday Egypt, today Algeria

This was the slogan of the brave protesters in Algiers on Saturday, making the first breach in Algeria's wall of fear

Karima Bennoune

(professor of law and Arthur L Dickson scholar at Rutgers University school of law in Newark, New Jersey)

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 February 2011

"Algiers – In the wake of Friday's historic events in Cairo, over 1,000 peaceful demonstrators defied a ban on protests in Algiers on the Place de 1er Mai on Saturday. The goal of the National Coordination Committee for Change and Democracy, the organisers of what was supposed to have been a march to Martyr's Square, was to call for an end to the 19-year state of emergency, for democratic freedoms, and for a change in Algeria's political system. Invigorated by Cairo's great event, this Saturday in Algiers they chanted slogans like "Djazair Horra Dimocratia" ("A free and democratic Algeria"), "système dégage" ("government out") and indeed, "Yesterday Egypt, today Algeria"......

Clearly, the wall of fear needs to be broken down here – perhaps a harder task than elsewhere, given the terrible violence of the 1990s that killed as many as 200,000 people and terrorised the entire society. The opposition needs to be united and organised. Additionally, activists need to build critical links with broader segments of the society to achieve the political change so clearly needed in the country and which the police overreaction only underscored – change that Tunisia and Egypt have proven to be entirely possible.

For now, perhaps it is more accurate to say, "Yesterday Egypt, tomorrow Algeria …""

Uncle Sam sits on the fence

Chris Riddell on US foreign policy

Egypt: how the people span the wheel of their country's history

By overcoming their fears and defying the man whose regime had terrorised them for 30 years, Cairo's protesters not only drove out Hosni Mubarak, they have changed the Arab world

David Sharrock, Jack Shenker in Cairo and Paul Harris in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 February 2011

"There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune, says Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as he urges his comrades to seize the moment to overthrow the ruler they see as a tyrant. It has taken decades for the storm surge to break over Egypt, but when it finally did the forces of change proved irresistible, sweeping away Hosni Mubarak in just 18 days of popular and peaceful street protests.

The most remarkable feature of all is that nobody saw it coming. For all its resources, the United States and its western allies were taken completely by surprise by the brutally swift events which are now reshaping the geo-strategic map of the Middle East. Regime change, the Arab street has shown, need not be given such a bad name after all......"

The revolution that has given Egypt new hope, pride and confidence

Egyptians are coming to terms with the scale of change in their country following the dramatic protests in Cairo that unseated their president

Chris McGreal
The Observer, Sunday 13 February 2011

".......Still, even amid the debate over what the military is really up to, there is a new confidence in the power of ordinary people to make a difference and a determination that, if the army doesn't deliver, Egyptians will be back on the streets.

"We are the example to the world," said Abdel Massri, a 25 year-old IT specialist. "All over the Arab world they are celebrating our freedom. In America, in Israel, they say Egyptians are not ready for democracy, Arabs don't know how to use democracy. But that is just their excuse for supporting Mubarak. He was good for them, not for us."

Mubarak may be gone, but people have not stopped talking about him.

They debate how to get back the money they believe he has stolen. They disagree about whether he should be allowed to retire in peace in Egypt or be called to account for the many crimes people tick off.

But they generally agree on one thing in Tahrir Square – that Mubarak colossally misjudged Egyptians.

"Mubarak, this man is so stupid," said Khalil with a laugh. "Everything he did managed to get more people on the streets. His speech made every single person hate him because they discovered he doesn't love Egypt, he loves himself.""

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story: Egypt: A culture of torture

We ask just how deep the culture of torture runs within the Egyptian state security apparatus

To Mohammad El-Sayed Said

Al Jazeera's senior political analyst pays tribute to the community organisers who made Egypt's revolution possible.

Marwan Bishara

"........Contrasting visions

The contrast between the visions of Said and Ishaq on the one hand, and that of the deposed Mubarak presidency on the other hand, couldn't be starker.

Like Mohammad El-Sayed Said, the new national leaders emerging from Tahrir Square seek a state that is neither religious nor neoliberal, capitalist nor socialist, Muslim nor Christian; they are dying, and many have literally, for a united, humane, prosperous, truly democratic Egypt for all.

The professional pundits who were parachuted into Egypt by the international media have brought with them pre-cooked conclusions about "radical Islam", security threats and what it takes to ensure regional stability.

But ordinary Egyptians have shown them - and us - that we don't have to sign up for a world of extremes, where Osama Bin Laden and Hosni Mubarak are the only possible choices.

The crowds in Tahrir Square stood firmly in the middle and stood their ground, are finally making room for everyone in Egypt - and giving the world a lesson about democracy in the process."

باراك يقترح على الولايات المتحدة عدم إجراء انتخابات في مصر قريبا

The New Pharaoh?

Yes.....
IF USrael Has Its Way.

AN IMPORTANT PIECE

عــ48ـرب
كتبت صحيفة "يديعوت أحرونوت" في عددها الصادر صباح اليوم، الأحد، أن وزير الأمن الإسرائيلي، إيهود باراك، اقترح على الولايات المتحدة تشجيع القيادة العسكرية المصرية على عدم إجراء الانتخابات الآن.

وبحسب الصحيفة فقد اقترح على المسؤولين الأمريكيين اتخاذ سياسة متوازنة، تتضمن تشجيع القيادة العسكرية المصرية على اتخاذ قرارات بشأن إجراء إصلاحات سياسية فورية، بحسب مطالب المتظاهرين، وفي الوقت نفسه عدم التسرع إلى إجراء انتخابات.

وأضافت الصحيفة أن باراك ادعى أن إجراء انتخابات خلال شهرين من الممكن أن يعطي أفضلية لحركة الإخوان المسلمين بوصفها حركة المعارضة الأكثر تنظيما، في حين أن إجراء انتخابات بعد 6 شهور أو أكثر سوف يتيح لأحزاب أخرى أو أحزاب جديدة تنظيم صفوفها وتحقيق نجاحات في الانتخابات.
[Translation: USrael needs time to buy new puppets and to finance them in Egypt!]
كما اقترح باراك على الولايات المتحدة أن تضع ثقتها بالجيش المصري، وذلك لأن آلاف الضباط المصريين تم تدريبهم في الولايات المتحدة أو كانوا على اطلاع على مساهمة الولايات المتحدة في مصر.

وكتب ناحوم برنيع في الصحيفة أن الحكومة الإسرائيلية تنظر الآن إلى الجيش المصري بوصفه ضمانة للاستقرار والاستمرارية، وللمفارقة للسلام أيضا، بحسب الصحيفة، وتنظر إلى الجنرال طنطاوي، وزير الدفاع المصري، على أنه مبارك الجديد، وأنه في مصر الجديدة الخارجة من ميدان التحرير لا يوجد "شريك آخر"، خاصة وأن السلام مع مصر قد فرض من "الأعلى" وظل كما هو، ولم يتغلغل في داخل الشعب المصري.

ولا يختلف برنيع عن بقية الكتاب الإسرائيليين في تناول الديمقراطية في العالم العربي، بزعم أن الديمقراطية في العالمين العربي والإسلامي لم تثمر حتى اليوم عن نتائج إيجابية، معتبر أن الثورة الإيرانية وفوز حركة حماس في الانتخابات وصعود قوة حزب الله في لبنان أمثلة على ذلك."

Algeria shuts down internet and Facebook as protest mounts

Ok, it's the lousy Telegraph, but still.

Internet providers were shut down and Facebook accounts deleted across Algeria on Saturday as thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were arrested in violent street demonstrations.

Algerian protesters chant slogans during a demonstration in Algiers

Plastic bullets and tear gas were used to try and disperse large crowds in major cities and towns, with 30,000 riot police taking to the streets in Algiers alone.

There were also reports of journalists being targeted by state-sponsored thugs to stop reports of the disturbances being broadcast to the outside world.

But it was the government attack on the internet which was of particular significance to those calling for an end to President Abdelaziz Boutifleka's repressive regime.